Analysis of new outpatients' responses to a survey of their reasons for visiting a dental clinicYasuyuki Kimura, Ken-ichi Tonami, Shiro Mataki, Kouji ArakiSeptember-December 2017, 6(3):111-114DOI:10.4103/ejgd.ejgd_32_17

Background: To practice holistic therapy, health professionals must understand not only biological information but also psychological and social aspects of patient complaints at the first visit medical interview. However, few studies have investigated psychological and social causes associated with the patient's complaint. Although patients' complaints are expected to be related to their background and behavior, research on this issue has been limited. Aim: This study investigated the proportions of biological, psychological, and social causes contributing to patients' complaints as well as the influences of new outpatients' backgrounds on reasons for visiting our hospital. Methods: We analyzed health questionnaires from 5129 new outpatients visiting our hospital. Patients' reasons for visiting the dental hospital were classified into three categories: “biological,” “psychological,” and “social.” We subdivided biological reasons based on the patient's explanatory model. Descriptions of psychological reasons were subdivided into several groups. Results: Biological, psychological, and social reasons for visiting our hospital were given by 86%, 6%, and 8% of patients, respectively. Compared to men, significantly more women gave psychological reasons, while significantly more men gave social reasons. Patients who had attended another dental clinic were significantly more likely to indicate a psychological reason. Among patients who had attended another dental clinic, the most common reason for visiting our hospital was dissatisfaction. Patients who had not previously consulted any medical clinic tended to present explanatory models. Patients without a surgical history or systemic disease and those not taking medication showed similar tendencies. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a patient's background affects their behavior.

Internal resorption (IR) is a progressive process initiated within the pulp space with the loss of dentin. Although trauma and pulp inflammation/infection are the major contributory factors in the initiation of IR, all the etiologic factors and the pathogenesis have not yet been completely elucidated. Cervical external resorption is defined as a localized resorptive process that commences on the surface of the root below the epithelial attachment and the coronal aspect of the supporting alveolar process, namely, the zone of the connective tissue attachment. This report is presented two cases of root resorption (external cervical resorption and inflammatory IR) in traumatized teeth where cone beam computed tomography has been used as an important diagnostic tool. Treatment of external cervical resorption involved endodontics and periodontics. In case with inflammatory IR, only endodontic treatment was necessary. The postoperative course was uneventful and a stable clinical outcome was obtained.

Background: Advances in endodontic biomaterials are at the forefront of endodontic research. Purpose: This study aimed to compare the dentinogenic differentiation potential of extracts of two formulations (normal and fast set [FS] by the addition of calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2.2H2O) of white Portland cements (WPCs) of a different origin (Aalborg, Malaysia, and Egypt) on dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). Materials and Methods: The material extracts at 12.5 mg/ml were applied on DPSCs cultured in 96-well plates. After 1, 3, 7 and 14 days of incubation, the RNA was extracted, cDNA was prepared, and the expression of four dentinogenic gene markers (bone gamma-carboxyglutamate protein, dentin sialophosphoprotein, runt-related transcription factor 2, and secreted phosphoprotein 1 [SPP1]) was examined using the real-time polymerase chain reaction. One-way analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis, and the level of significance was set at 0.05 (P = 0.05). Results: Significant differences were observed between Malaysian WPC (MAWPC) and Egyptian WPC (EGWPC) and FS MAWPC), FS EGWPC in 7 out of 15 and 6 out of 10 comparisons, respectively. While more expressions in EGWPC group were observed in four comparisons and three for MAWPC, all FS formulations showed higher expressions for FS MAWPC compared to FS EGWPC (P < 0.05). The addition of CaCl2.2H2O to MAWPC and EGWPC increased the upregulation of SPP1 gene at all-day intervals, which was not observed with other genes. Conclusions: The dentinogenic differentiation of DPSCs shows different expression profiles to extracts of normal and fast formulations of WPC. Extracts of WPC of different origin have different dentinogenic differentiation potential on DPSCs.

Aims: The present study investigated changes in the student evaluations of a medical ethics class after studying in dental school for an additional 3 years.Materials and Methods: A problem-based learning medical ethics class in which students discuss the “right to death with dignity” using video material as a trigger was offered to third-year students at the School of Dentistry. At the end of the class, each student submitted a report describing their own opinions of the ethical questions raised as well as their impression of the class. Three years later, the same students were surveyed regarding cognitive changes in class evaluations. The changes in class evaluations were statistically analyzed with reference to the contents of the initial report (P < 0.05). Results: Student evaluations of the class rose 3 years later. One reason for the evaluation rise was considered to be the growth in their reflection capacity during additional years of learning experience in the dental school. Students whose report demonstrated that they were engaged by the ethical dilemma tended to raise their evaluation of the class. On the other hand, students who mentioned the difficulty of the task or the shocking images in the video material in their initial report did not raise their evaluation later. Thus, students' perception of the task or setting in the class appeared to have a continuing effect on their evaluation. Conclusion: The results confirmed that student evaluations of a class would change after additional years of learning experience.